please empty your brain below

Sounds just like me, these past few weeks. But my holiday starts today!
Sounds like my day yesterday. Even down the 'nearly lost it in the afternoon'. I left on time, got home, had dinner and put the kids to bed. Then I logged on and did another couple of hours, concentrating on things I probably won't have time to do today.
Walking home from work is fine. If I walked *to* work, I'd smell awful by the time I got there.
I always wish I spent more time at work. Even now when they've stopped me having anything sharper than crayons...
Absolutely silly to work 50% longer than your contracted hours for no extra recompense, (and miss out on sitting at home alone in the evening drinking a beer and watching drivel on TV).

Unless you spend 1/3rd of your work day surfing the internet :p
What was the name of that fine tune you jigged along to? It might come in useful for me at work today/this evening!

I do find it quite soul destroying that one ends up staying late at the office in order to get a long list of tasks done, only to be replaced by an equally long list of tasks the following day. It can feel like climbing the Penrose stairs, or Groundhog Day.

At least it's Friday.

and breathe!
Curiously, I wondered why the tube around Waterloo seemed surprisingly lightly loaded at around 19:00 yesterday. Maybe it's because everyone left at 4pm/walked home/stayed late to work more?
Sometimes, the only way to show that you have too much work to do is to leave some of it undone, to make a point.

Otherwise, if it all gets done (by you giving some of your life to The Firm for free), then the Powers That Be will assume you haven't enough to fill your time and will allocate you even more.

You couldn't do it if you have family responsibilities, so why do it?
you send your boss an email after eight o'clock in the evening, as if to prove a point, in the hope they'll notice the timestamp.

Not just me then. Of course the rational thing to do is to write it but not send it and then give it a final look through in the morning with a fresh set of eyes. But no, then he won't appreciate that the task set was actually very time-consuming.

Better still if working from home, have a break and then send it. Of course this all backfires when you get a reply within minutes!
"You couldn't do it if you have family responsibilities, so why do it?"

This.

I am constantly frustrated by the ASSumption that I *can* do it because I don't have 'family responsibilities". "Family Responsibilities" are what delineate the "have to go homes" from the "can do its". I am even more frustrated because I do have "family responsibilities", but they are ones that involve care for adults (which of your Parliamentarians referred to these as 'coffin-chasers'?) not socially and economically valued children. Someone once said to me 'this is your life, not a dress rehearsal'. And this is true. I still work more than I should. But I try to make sure it is stuff I want to do, and I sure as hell don't cover for those with 'family responsibilities'. If I was in a situation where I had less control over my work you can bet I'd be out that door at 5pm on the dot, or claiming time-in-lieu for all extra hours worked.
I walk to work every day because I live 10 minutes away... there's a bus but it comes every 12 minutes and takes 3 to 8 minutes to get there...
And adding to what Antipodean has added to my original point, people who work significantly more hours than those for which they are paid (often giving excuses such as, "I have to or my job is at risk if I don't" etc etc) are actually taking jobs away from other people.
There are an awful lot of jobs that are richly rewarded, because the work needs to get done, whether that is before 5pm or after 8pm.

And there are an awful lot of people getting richly rewarded who then decide that it is all a bit too much work, particularly if there is a colleague who could pick up the slack...
It's a luxury to take a day now and again where you work for hours and hours because you care about the finished product and you want to do a great job that you know will be appreciated.

Feeling like you need to do that every day leads to inefficiency as your fried brain starts to screw with you. And then your body starts to screw with you, and then you can't do the long days any more. I am lucky enough to work in a profession where situation one leads to situation two for an awful lot of people.
@ Bluewitch. Totally agree.
Reading that made me very glad that I'm retired.
At least you had time to write your blog.
I hope they appreciate that they've got a Diamond Geezer in their midst! I suspect they don't appreciate much, but at least you manage to preserve sufficient time for the blog.

But too much work and no play makes Jack..............
if you have so much work employ more people.are we to feel sorry for you?
Hey @mark; dg isn't the boss. These days people are lucky to have jobs and want to hang onto them.

I worked like this for far too long; three years ago I gave it up, did a TEFL course, moved to a small town abroad (where living is cheaper than in London) and now I work part-time. My only regret is that I didn't do it ten years earlier.
mark said
if you have so much work employ more people.are we to feel sorry for you?


I don't think DG is looking for sympathy - but I can too easily identify with his situation. Perhaps his boss has budget constraints - I know mine has

It is, however, important to keep a work-life balance (much as I hate the term) because as misspiggy says "a fried brain starts to screw with you. And then your body starts to screw with you" - something that happened to me a couple of years ago

Take it easy DG - we love you blogs but a fried brain may not help
I agree with Rich. It's not digging drains though, or balancing on a steel bar 500 feet above a street or crabbing up the crap from a tube line at 0300....(etc).
It's worth it once in a while, to clear your desk by the end of the week or to save effort in the morning. But if it happens every day, think what would happen if you broke your leg or had a sudden illness - the firm would not go under, they'd get by, the work would be done somehow or prioritised and some of it dropped. 10% unpaid overtime in the course of a month is extremely generous but may make sense. More than that, except in extremis, does not.
No one has said they really like your writing so I will.










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